As many educational institutions were closed on Children’s Day, Tzu Chi Great Love Preschool held a heart-warming retreat for its staff. The staff retreat was held at Kampung Kampus in Ground-Up Initiative. This was the first staff retreat I had with everyone since I joined Tzu Chi Great Love Preschool and it was a memorable day for me.
When I arrived, the centre leaders were already standing at the entrance, getting ready to welcome the staff by singing the “Welcome Song”. I was touched and surprised by the Tzu Chi welcoming style, and I believe that the centre leaders arrived so much earlier to prepare themselves to welcome us warmly. Thank you so much for planning such a special day and starting our day full of love.
The first activity we did was walking in a stream. The stream was a natural drain which diverts rainwater to the local catchment area. The path to the stream was steep and covered with vegetation. Ms Tai and some other colleagues stood at the end of the path to help everyone get into the stream. Walking down the stream was fun and the water was cooling. It was a great chance to get closer to nature and I was so amazed to see the mini waterfall as we walked to the end of the stream. The stream has a sand bed, and we had a chance to see some water creatures in the stream as we walked. I did not regret going into the stream even though I was frightened by the steep slope of the path going down the stream.
After coming up from the stream, I was glad that we had the time to sit down and brainstorm for the future of Tzu Chi Great Love Preschool using SWOT analysis. We really worked together as a team to discuss our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats as a centre. It was a good experience as I felt involved in the decision-making process.
After the brainstorming exercise, we filled our stomachs with a vegetarian buffet. We had to bring our own lunch boxes and reusable utensils as we practise what we preach about environmental protection.
After lunch, we experienced three different activities in three different groups. The tour, farming, and the woodwork station. I started with the tour of Kampung Kampus, in which our guide, Mr Cai Bingyu introduced some eco-friendly features of their office and how they build kampong spirit within the urban environment. Then I went to their farm where I learned and gained experience in farming. I tilled the ground and planted vegetable seedlings. The physical exercise of tilling the ground was exhausting. It made me reflect on farmers, who have to till the ground every day. Lastly, I went to the woodwork station, where I learned to dismantle wood pallets to remove nails from the planks. The pallets have only been used once and it takes one person one whole day to dismantle a pallet as well as the 300 nails used to hold the pallet together.
Dinner was prepared by Ground-Up Initiative. It was cooked by a retired chef. We had pumpkin rice, stir-fried mixed vegetables and tomato stew. The tomato stew was the most popular dish as a lot of my colleagues helped themselves to more than one serving.
We played team-building games after dinner. My favourite game was “Apple, Orange, Banana”. Each fruit represented a different instruction. As Ms Audrey called out the string of instructions, everyone had to follow the instructions simultaneously. When we were playing the game, we learned how to work cohesively to avoid hurting our colleagues. We had a lot of fun during the team-building games.
The last segment, which was also the highlight of the day, was the mutual appreciation session around the campfire. The moment I saw the campfire, I felt so warm and heartened. The teachers from each bay took turns singing or dancing to show mutual appreciation for the teachers of other bays. Ms Wenshan（妏珊老师）modified the lyrics of the song “Dedication” 『奉献』by Su Rui (苏芮) to thank the centre leaders as well as all her colleagues. This brought tears to everyone’s eyes.
We watched the sunset as we sat around the campfire. A wave of sadness swept over me as the day drew to a close. It seemed that time flew by when we were having fun. I appreciate the centre leaders’ efforts in planning such a memorable Staff Retreat.
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